Monthly Archives: April 1999

We had a Medieval Human vs Orc FR! fight Tuesday (April 27, 1999), and I’ve finally written a battle report. This one’ s from the Orc point of view (after all, victors write history, right?) and I had a lot of fun writing it!

Da ‘ umans were gettin’ a bit discouraged, I tink, and mebbe slowin’ down a bit, but dey was still tough basterds, and da batch dat came ‘ round da forest ahead of us, dey were even tougher looking, and dat Duchess, she was wit’ dose knights, so dey’ d fight real good! Da shaman cast lots o’ walls a flame, and cut da mean-looking knights off, but da other knights ran over da last o’ dose mad wargs, and nearly all da archer-types was run down as well, but da ‘ uman’ s were loosing, and dey knew it too.

Da end came wit’ out me even ‘ aving to fight, and I calls dat pretty good! Dose wolf-snagas swarmed all ov’ r some knights dat were fightin’ wit some snaga mobs, and da surrounded knights went down, and da rest kinda ran away, but dey left lots an’ lots o’ ‘ orses an’ ‘ umans on da field, so we had a good feed and got to plunder dat village, and it was pretty damn good, ya know? Dat village burned real nice, too.

Postscript: I’m in the middle of reading “The Art of War in the Middle Ages” by Charles Oman (my light recreational reading of the moment) and ran across this passage:

“…each commander took his own route and made what speed he could, the French army arrived upon the field in dozens of small scattered bodies. These were attacked in detail, and in many cases routed by the Mamelukes. No general battle was fought, but a number of detached and incoherent cavalry combats had all the results of a great defeat. A skirmish…would overthrow the chivalry of the West, even when in went forth in great strength and was inspired…” (pg 59)

Now, substitute “Duchess of Westfold” for ‘French’ and ‘West’, and “Orcs” for ‘Mamelukes’, and we have a perfect snyopsis of Tuesday’s FR! fight between Tony’s medieval humans and my orcs and goblins!

“Art of War in the Middle Ages” is a great book – I highly recommend reading it.

The Duchess of Southfold did declare war upon the Dwarves, declaring that Dwarves were offensive, thieving, braggartly, and furthermore were foul to look upon. Summoning a great host of knights (4 Knights), her personal knightly retinue (2 Elite Knights) a lesser host of lowly footmen (4 Handweapons, 1 Mob of peasants), and many of the great nobles of the land, including Sir Danel, Master of Horse (Hero w/ Exeptional Weapon), Sir Vilheim, Master of Foot (Hero) and the ignoble but skilled illusionist Sarnain (1st Level Illusionist Hedge Mage), she did lead her troops against the offensive Dwarves. (the Duchess was her own General.)

Greatly alarmed at this mighty host, the Thane of Greymount (General) mustered a great host of axedwarves (6 Handweapon), his personal Guard (1 Elite Handweapon), the crossbowdwarves (3 Xbow), a party of Bearriders (1 Hvy Cav, causes fear), and his great battlewagon (Battlewagon w/ Hvy Arty). The great heroes of the realm accompanied him (2 Heroes), as did a Cleric of the Wargod (1st Lvl War Cleric).

The human army moved through great woods towards the River Flueve, which was entirely fordable at this, the height of summer. The footmen did hang back, not desiring to combat the superior Dwarven forces, whilst the great body of Knights, lead by the Duchess and her Master of Horse and the illusionist Sarnain, did crash through the forest in hope of outflanking the Dwarves.

The Dwarves had drawn up their great infantry battleline, with crossbows on the flanks and a smaller party of axedwarves in reserve, and hoped to move forward to contact the knights whilst they were still struggling to leave the river. Sarnian, however, skillfully cast illusions, which had the appearance of great walls of flames, and did prevent much of the movement the Dwarves had hoped to make.

Thus the knights were able to cross the river and deploy unmolested, and form up great ranks to thunder upon the Dwarves, spitting them with lances and trampling them underfoot. The knightly ranks did wrap entirely around the Dwarven line, and the further part of the Dwarven line fell before the knights, yet the knights were greatly in disarray from their charge, and there were still many Dwarves upon their flanks.

Furthermore, a party of Dwarven Bearriders had come over a great hill and fallen upon the human footmen far behind. The great warrior Vilheim, who was Master of Foot for the Duchess, slew the Dwarf Razan Bearrider in epic single combat, but was lost when the vengeful Bearriders destroyed his men about him. Despite their loss and the terror the bears stirred in men’s guts., the footmen continued to hold off the Bears.

All might still have been lost if it had not been for the skillfully cast illusions of Sarnian, who made it seem as if great lines and walls of fire blocked the Dwarven advance, thus allowing the knights to dress their lines and fall upon the enemy again. Thus trapped between great lines of knights and the river, their own lines in terrible dissarray, the Dwarves fled, or fell, or surrendered, each according to his own fate.

The foul uruk-hai and snaga underlings of the uruk chief Unbolg had been raiding and plundering the fringes of Dwarven territory for too long already, and their latest move was the last straw: the uruk had moved into and desecrated a hilltop site dedicated to the Dwarven Smith-God. Mustering the axedwarves and warriors of the realm, the Thane of Greymount marched out to recover the holy site.

The Dwarves had a great body of axedwarves (7 Handweapons), the best of whom were in the Greymount Guard (1 Elite Handweapon). Two companies of crossbowdwarves (2 Crossbow), a unit of feared Bearriders (Hvy Cavalry, causes Fear) and a great balista-mounting battlewagon (Battlewagon w/ Hvy Arty) completed the Dwarven line. Thorin Silvershield (Hero) was first amongst the Axedwarves, and Razan Bear-rider (Hero) lead the Bearriders into combat. The Thane himself lead the army (General), and an outraged Cleric of the Smith-God (1st Lvl War Cleric) accompanied the force.

The Uruk of Unbolg were not many (3 Handweapons) but were accompanied by a great mob of slave-orcs (6 Mobs of snaga) and a group of terrible Trolls (1 Elite Handweapon), while the low-ranking Uruk took up their bows (4 Skirmishers). The wargs and their riders rounded out the force (2 Light Cavalry wolfriders; 2 Small Monster units of wargs). Unbolg himself lead the force, waving his plundered Dwarven axe overhead (General w/ Exceptional Weapon). The Uruk Grashnek carried the revered tribal Banner of the Flame God (Hero w/ Army Standard), and Garz the Mad hammered his drum to inspire the troops (Bard) and aid the slimy snaga shaman Sqee (1st lvl Fire Shaman) in incinerating the hated Dwarves.

Battle was joined in a narrow valley between the holy hill and a larger hill toward the river. The warg-riders poured ahead on the right flank, the wargs moved onto the large hill to the left flank, and the main orc mass moved ahead slowly, with the skirmishers out in front. The Dwarves advanced in two lines of infantry, one behind the other, with the Bearriders and battlewagon gaurding the right flank and the Greymount Gaurd on the left flank.

The first clash came when the artillery of the battlewagon fired upon the snaga wargriders, who pressed on until fully half of them were destroyed, the remainder falling back to find easier targets.

As the Dwarves moved forward, they encountered the uruk skirmisher screen, the foul arrows of which slew many great Bears and their riders, utterly destroying the unit. Undismayed, the Dwarves slew many skirmishers with crossbow fire until the remainder fled behind the main body of the uruk, there to harass the enemy with bowfire.

A great fight developed on the very top of the sacred hill, as a Dwarven crossbow unit that had pressed ahead was attacked by a great mob of snagas and the wolfriders pressed upon their flanks. The great battlewagon thundered to their aid, but too late, as the crossbow Dwarves were swarmed under by the snagas, who were inspired by the great Flame Banner in their midst. The snaga found themselves overmatched by the great battlewagon, however, which crushed them under it’s great wheels.

Down below in the valley, the two infantry lines impacted with a great noise and greater slaughter, as the Dwarves had been filled with the battle-lust and power of their Wargod, and their rage was terrible to look upon. The uruk and snaga had fully half their battleline obliterated in the first minutes of combat, and the remainder were sore pressed despite the power of the Trolls and the efforts of the snaga fire shaman, who did summon great sheets of flame to protect the flanks of the surviving uruk and snaga.

On the far left flank, the ravening packs of wargs had been driven back and destroyed by crossbowdwarves and axedwarves, although the unit of crossbowdwarves had fallen when the great berserk fury of the Wargod siezed them and dashed them against the wargs, who were still more terrible that the berserker Dwarves.

The horribly outnumbered, outflanked and hard pressed remenants of the tribe of Unbolg fled cravenly into the wilds, and never troubled Dwarven lands again.

Great game – hope my opponent enjoyed it as much as I did. More battle reports coming soon.